Hi There
I want to share a backup application I made. It can be used to backup Macintosh volumes over the serial port.
I created it, because I couldn't retrieve data I had on a exotic SCSI 40 pin harddisk used in the old PowerBook series (e.g. PowerBook 140, 145B, etc.)
The only interface to current PCs I had was the floppy drive, but this does not allow for good data retrieval. With my script, it's possible to copy the original disk on block level, mount it in an emulator like Basilisk II and even do some data recovery of deleted files with the old Norton Disk Utilities.
The solution is based on 2 components:
- A native Macintosh application (based on MPW SIOW) to transfer volumes onto the serial port
- A python based script that receives the backup data on the serial port
In the file, you find following data:
- serialDiskCopy.sit -> StuffIt 5.5 compressed version of the native Macintosh backup application and the MPW source files
- serialDiskReceiver.py -> the python script to receive the backup data (i ran it on a recent Ubuntu machine)
- floppy.bin -> a HFS formated floppy containing a minimal system 7 and the backup application (can be used as a boot device and to run the backup app from)
- howto.gif -> a gif, that shows the usage of the applications
For correct wiring of the Macintosh serial port (Modem port) to the RS232 port used on common PC's, please use a quick Google search or look at the howto gif. Only TX and GND are needed.
Transfer is limited to 56k caused by the Macintoshs serial port speed limit. So 40 MB take aproximatley 2 hour. Back to modem speed
Plase note that the application is far from beeing polished and compatible with every system, I only tested it on my setup. But still I think it can act as a good base for other persons that need to backup their disks in a similar fashion and can therfore be a help to the 68k community.
I want to thank David Shayer, the original author of the Hard Disk ToolKit and SEdit. These tools were used on the old Macs to do low level disk operations. David and SEdit helped me a lot when developing the application! (He even provided me the original source code of SEdit
Thanks also go out to Stephan Brumme for his crc32 implementation I used to calculate checksums to detect data transfer errors.
That all for now, have fun... If you have questions, feel free to ask...
I want to share a backup application I made. It can be used to backup Macintosh volumes over the serial port.
I created it, because I couldn't retrieve data I had on a exotic SCSI 40 pin harddisk used in the old PowerBook series (e.g. PowerBook 140, 145B, etc.)
The only interface to current PCs I had was the floppy drive, but this does not allow for good data retrieval. With my script, it's possible to copy the original disk on block level, mount it in an emulator like Basilisk II and even do some data recovery of deleted files with the old Norton Disk Utilities.
The solution is based on 2 components:
- A native Macintosh application (based on MPW SIOW) to transfer volumes onto the serial port
- A python based script that receives the backup data on the serial port
In the file, you find following data:
- serialDiskCopy.sit -> StuffIt 5.5 compressed version of the native Macintosh backup application and the MPW source files
- serialDiskReceiver.py -> the python script to receive the backup data (i ran it on a recent Ubuntu machine)
- floppy.bin -> a HFS formated floppy containing a minimal system 7 and the backup application (can be used as a boot device and to run the backup app from)
- howto.gif -> a gif, that shows the usage of the applications
For correct wiring of the Macintosh serial port (Modem port) to the RS232 port used on common PC's, please use a quick Google search or look at the howto gif. Only TX and GND are needed.
Transfer is limited to 56k caused by the Macintoshs serial port speed limit. So 40 MB take aproximatley 2 hour. Back to modem speed
Plase note that the application is far from beeing polished and compatible with every system, I only tested it on my setup. But still I think it can act as a good base for other persons that need to backup their disks in a similar fashion and can therfore be a help to the 68k community.
I want to thank David Shayer, the original author of the Hard Disk ToolKit and SEdit. These tools were used on the old Macs to do low level disk operations. David and SEdit helped me a lot when developing the application! (He even provided me the original source code of SEdit
Thanks also go out to Stephan Brumme for his crc32 implementation I used to calculate checksums to detect data transfer errors.
That all for now, have fun... If you have questions, feel free to ask...
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